-[ Heckler Magazine ]-

Eilizabeth Creapeu (Fervor [Shmervor!] Zine) sent me this interview with Sonny Mayugba, executive editor of Heckler Magazine, a skate/snowboard/music zine.
I have always enjoyed reading Heckler magazine because it combines my two loves, music and snowboarding, plus skateboarding, and it is presented in an honest and artistic manner. I was interested how the magazine started and how it's survived almost ten years. I was finally able to get some questions answered by Sonny Mayugba, executive editor, via email. He had some very inspiring things to say about starting your own project and sticking with it. Enjoy.





How did you decide to start Heckler? Was it something you had been planning for a while or was it less premeditated?
Way less premeditated. We started it as a scam to get free lift tickets at Boreal, a Tahoe resort where jibbing started. We were poor skater/musicians who snowboarded a few times a year, but loved it. It was a way to snowboard for free.

Did you have some journalism training before you started the magazine?
None.

How did Heckler start out (history, the early days)?
Issue one was put out by a shop called Mountain and Surf Pro Shop here in downtown Sacto. The shop owner paid the few hundred dollars for printing and got the back cover ad. Our editor also lived in the total pro house with Noah Salasnek, who was a big pro at the time, and still is. It was a fun party. So I sold ads, Matt Kennedy was the editor, and John Baccigaluppi was our art designer. None of us knew [radio edit] about publishing. I was homeless at the time, so I got an apartment and lived in the living room/kitchen and sold ads from there. We got some money and product and made the "first" issue of Heckler a free newsprint, black and white 'zine. It was a very exciting time.

What were some of the major obstacles that Heckler had to overcome, being an independent magazine?
Not many connections. Not many ads. No money. No resources. No staff. Distribution and lack thereof. People partying too much. As the magazine grew, John and I were doing all the work. Nights were very long.

What are the regular stresses?
Having a staff. Money. Cash flow. Newsstand and readership growth. Constantly increasing the quality of the editorial of the magazine. Heckler has a more liberal attitude than other skate/snow magazines out there. For example, your simple issue talked about living a simpler life, being less materialistic, and supporting small, local businesses. But then you run ads for huge sporting good corporations.

How do you justify that?
Well, major corporations exist and will continue to exist. The problem is finding cool, small, liberal, open minded, expressive, creative companies that exist. Having huge corporations in our magazine funds our cause and our message. And we know that the impact our message has on the youth outweighs the promotion visibility of these corporations. So we embrace them, to and let them fund our cause and most of all, our lifestyle.

Are there any policies that Heckler follows to maintain its DIY (Do It Yourself) character?
That's an interesting question. Our DIY character comes out of necessity. We do everything ourselves on a super minimal budget and resources. So, when you can't play the big boys' game, you create a new game. DIY is an overused term. Most companies we work with are people just like us who want to create something cool and finally decide, [radio edit] it; I'm going to do it. All the "character" and DIY tags come later and should be a synonym with DIG: Do It Ghetto. Why has skateboarding stayed relatively underground and less accepted by the mainstream, while on the other hand, snowboarding has reached Olympic status and support from mainstream companies like Ralph Lauren and Nike?
Skateboarding is hard and takes a lifetime to master, and you must be a hardcore dog ready to take punishment to skate. Snowboarding is easy and can be mastered quickly, is very fun, and has a way broader demographic participant base. Bottom line: Mom, Dad, Baby girl, little boy, and Grandma can strap on a snowboard and slide down a hill. Grandma has no business dropping into a vert ramp. And by the way, Ralph, Nike, and their buddies are currently totally supporting skateboarding. Their motives are their own. They want a piece.

What's happened to the smaller snowboarding magazines that approached the subject from a different angle (e.g. Stick, Drift, Fresh & Tasty), and how has Heckler survived?
Stick: Was published by Ray Gun magnate Marvin Scott Jarrett. The mag was very different and people did not eat it up. Ads were slim and they were trying to compete with the big boys. They changed their mag format from square to regular and went out of business one issue later. Drift: No publishing structure, run by pro's Todd Richards and Christine Sperber, no schedule, etc. Faded. Missed by all. FAT: The all girl angle did not pan out. Melissa and Bethany got tired of the struggle. No ads. No circulation. Died. Heckler: Hmmmmmm. Most of all, we never tried to compete with the big boys. We never wanted to be TW [TransWorld Snowboarding] or Snowboarder. We always wanted to be different. Read above: If you can't play the game, change the game. Timing was big; we were early in the game. Vibe. Heckler has a great vibe, and people dig that. Basically staying true to our original vision of the magazine and doing a unique mag with good editorial, keeping a firm grasp on our niche. Anyone with money can start a snowboard mag. But doing it different is the key. And most of all, the people and help we received over the years is totally helped our success.

What do you think about the K2/Rider merger?
Burton and K2 now control over half of the snowboard market. There's only about half a dozen independent board companies still alive. K2 buying Ride was not a total surprise. K2 is a sports company, and they buy companies. Making snowboards is costly, and indie companies can't keep up with the technology going on, unless they have a ton of money. And if you look at it technically, Burton is an indie company. Jake still owns it and runs it. They just happen to be huge. Can't blame them for making sick product. People made them big. K2 buying Ride is just another by-product of these consolidation years that were necessary to make our industry healthy. Good luck to 'em.

Are there any major changes coming up at Heckler?
Yes. We are increasing our frequency to 8 times a year. I would like to eventually go monthly. Other than that, just keep putting out good mags and getting into cool projects. Oh yeah, we got a book deal from Chronicle Books to publish a hardbound coffee table book. That'll be fun.

Have you made any enemies doing Heckler?
Yeah, once we printed some [radio edit] about Black Fly's (sunglasses), and they threatened to kick my ass at a trade show. I was freaking out. I talked to the guy later, and he was cool. Then this other guy, that will go unnamed--we printed some [radio edit] about him, and he totally freaked and was going to kick my ass, but he hasn't yet. Mostly stupid [radio edit], nothing big yet--that we know about. Maybe the Christian Coalition.

Why is northern California better than southern California?
I like Nor Cal 'cause it's less concrete, more varying weather, way better snow and mountains, more soul, less fakeness, less fake boobs, less republicans, less military guys who wanna kick our asses, more wine country, Tahoe, and San Francisco. But So Cal has the warm ocean to surf in--gotta love that. Nor Cal does kick ass, however.

Thanks to Elizabeth and Sonny for their quaint small talk about the magazine buisness, snowboarding and jazz. Elizabeth really looked like she knew what she was talking about...probably from reading Heckler. The Heckler website is http://www.heckler.com.